Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.

The line contrasts mere subsistence with a fuller, more deliberate life. It criticizes a culture in which work and the pursuit of income become ends in themselves, crowding out the very experiences—reflection, relationships, moral and intellectual growth—that make life meaningful. Read in light of Fuller’s broader transcendentalist milieu, the sentiment aligns with a call to self-cultivation and inward freedom: economic necessity is real, but when “getting a living” becomes the sole measure of value, people surrender autonomy and depth. The aphorism thus functions as both social critique and personal admonition to resist reducing life to labor.